SUNDERLAND lock horns with their former manager Simon Grayson this afternoon, with Lee Johnson admitting the difficulty of the task the current Fleetwood Town boss took on during his spell at the Stadium of Light was not adequately conveyed by the controversial ‘Sunderland Til I Die’ documentary.

Grayson’s ill-fated five-month spell as Sunderland manager coincided with the period when the Netflix cameras were rolling, and he played a central role in the first series of the show.

In a memorable scene, he conducted a somewhat farcical dressing-room meeting with a flipboard, and he has subsequently bemoaned the way in which he was portrayed on camera claiming it left out “the key context of things” and suggested he was the “bad cop” in terms of Sunderland’s relegation with his successor, Chris Coleman, playing the “good cop” role.

Johnson has watched some of ‘Sunderland Til I Die’ back since taking over as the Black Cats’ head coach, and he agrees that the scale of the challenge Grayson took on is sometimes underappreciated.

“I did watch the documentary, probably a couple of years ago when it first came out,” said Johnson. “And then I recently watched a little bit back of the second series, which I found hilarious because now all of a sudden, I know the characters involved. That was enjoyable.

“Listen, Simon is a well-decorated manager, simple as that. His record speaks for itself. He’s had four promotions out of League One or something like that, and a whole load of Championship teams that were in the top ten and in and around the play-offs.

“But in retrospect, you see how difficult a job he had now. Maybe at the time, when the pressure and the expectation is to go straight up, you only really know the quality of any manager two or three years after they’ve done their work. That can be positive or negative depending on where the club have gone to.

“Myself, I’ve got loads of respect for a manager who’s probably had seven or eight hundred games now.”

The cameras stopped rolling at the end of Sunderland’s first season in League One, with the new regime showing no desire to get back in touch with the Fulwell 73 production company to suggest a third series.

Johnson is relieved that his every move is not being filmed, and agrees that this summer’s overhaul might have been more difficult to enact had another installment of ‘Sunderland Til I Die’ been in the offing.

“I suppose there’s always that natural fear of how you might come across because what’s passionate at the time does not always come across as passionate at a later date,” he explained. “It can be viewed as comical when it’s seen on video and film.

“That’s obviously a consideration – but it hasn’t been there for us. We haven’t had to dramatise anything, and we’ve been able to get on with our work quietly and efficiently. That’s helped us stay tightknit on things, and I think we’ve done our work particularly well this summer.

“It won’t always be like that, but you’ve always got to try to keep making the same decisions, and that would apply whether there’s cameras on you or no cameras on you.

“Whatever is going on externally, you’ve got to make decisions based on the long-term success of the football club as much as possible. And then fast-track that with your ability and everyone’s else work rate, effort and ability too.”

Sunderland (4-2-3-1): Hoffman; Winchester, Wright, Doyle, Cirkin; O’Nien, Neil; Gooch, Embleton, McGeady; Stewart.